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Has anyone else noticed that this guy is wearing a bullet proof vest under his shirt? The picture looks like it's from a Keynote address, is it normal for CEO's in china to wear armor?
 
I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says (but I’m also not a tech billionaire, so…), but one thing is quite obvious - more and more people are starting to publicly call things as they (imo) are - Apple has become a stale, greedy company, with overpriced, often neglected and/or rehashed products that are intentionally gimped (planned obsolescence) or simply outdated (compared to cutting edge stuff competitors deliver these days). The software is also far-far-far from “it just works” experience these days.

Just logged in to say that is spot-on imho
 
so much nonsense, so little time.

get back to us when you have real products, not "concept renderings" of your amazing stuff/cars. meanwhile, apple continues to suck up all the profit with its industry-leading mobile & PC devices -- each a best-seller in its industry. and im laughing at calling apple just a cell phone company -- cells didnt even exist in 1976. apple is and has been a computer company, tho even its side businesses like music & movies is larger than most companies will ever be.
 
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The guy is a ChiCom mouthpiece. Look at his family history and see how many of his ancestors were on the Long March. Not much has changed since Mao except the marketing image.
 
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"LeShi [another name for LeEco] is focused on the internet first, and only then on software, and finally on hardware."

From a company that is introducing a self driving electric car this statement makes me feel real safe...
 
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One look at the camera hump and you get a pretty good impression this CEO might not be that crazy.
you mean the minor camera ring on iphone? or all of the insane camera humps on Samsung, HTC, etc...? be more specific.
 
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This isn't the first time that a Chinese tech industry CEO has made a public challenge to Apple. Remember Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Creative Labs (Now Creative Technology Ltd.)? He publicly boasted in 2004 that his company’s MP3 player would outsell the iPod. Now I can’t even remember the name of that player.

It’s always best to boast AFTER the achievement, not before.
 
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Just logged in to say that is spot-on imho

Lifelong Apple user but I kind of agree with a lot of the points raised. The last truly innovative product though not a bit seller was the flawed but genuinely new Mac Pro 2013. I bought one it is great. I'm not seeing a lot of innovation, colours and thinning seem to be the 2 areas of development currently.

The MacBook, very thin and sacrifice made on ports and feel (keyboard/trackpad) but then other PC makers come along and do almost the same but improve upon it. Apple's response rose gold and tweaked internals.

iPad, bigger and thinner more colours. iPhone, take away headphone port (rumoured) stick with same basic design and 16GB option - new colours and same price.

I used to get excited about Apple launches, remember the G4 lampshade iMac! The original iPhone launch etc.

Even with software, Aperture might not have been a big seller but genuinely beautiful to use. OSX once rock solid now even the 'to fix the bugs' update still has issues.

I will keep buying Apple but there is a sense to me that the direction has been lost. How much of that is down to the loss of Jobs I wouldn't like to say.
 
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Maybe this article is based on a mistranslation? Concentrating on the Internet as their focus first means there is no product. The Internet is not a product, it's a set of protocols built in hardware and software.

Okay, he's the CEO, so he has no clue about what his employees are doing. What a surprise.
 
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Guy making an electric car says Apple shouldn't make a 4-inch phone. Clearly, Apple has no idea what it is doing because it's making over 90% of the industry's profits.

This is just "look at me" rubbish.
Brave Apple foot soldiers lining up. Ridiculous but also funny.

Of course it is "look at me rubbish" but as we approach the 2020s it really looks like Apple won´t dominate electronic devices´design as much as they did in the beginning of the century.
 
will keep buying Apple but there is a sense to me that the direction has been lost. How much of that is down to the loss of Jobs I wouldn't like to say.

Well, Jobs never had to contend with the technological maturity and market saturation that is affecting the PC, tablet and smartphone market in the way that Cook has. (Its not like Jobs never had any misfires).

Apple has usually been about refinement rather than groundbreaking new tech - and I don't currently see any shiny new technology waiting for the Apple treatment.

What are the big innovations in phone design that Apple is missing out on? Curved screens and 'edge' displays (yawn)?

As for Macs, the biggest opportunities offered in the latest underlying PC tech emerging from Intel and other are the ability to squeeze the same power into less space (yay! thinner!) and the shift to universal, 1-port-does-it-all interfaces (yay! fewer ports!) - and I think Apple have been screwed around by Intel's delays with Broadwell and the long wait for Skylake+Iris Pro chips. I'll reserve judgement until after the re-vamped MacBook Pros come out (whenever that may be).

Whatever Apple does to the iPad, I suspect that tablets were always going to be a flash-in-the-pan (I don't think they'll go away - just that we'll see a gradual drift back to laptops).

The Watch seems like a niche product for fitness enthusiasts (and there it has a lot of competition from FitBit etc. for those who don't want to go jogging with a brick strapped to their wrist) and a handful of people who seem to have brainwashed themselves to think that 1-day battery life and a normally-off display on a watch is somehow acceptable. Longer battery life and always-on (e-ink?) displays are needed to make this viable.

As for the quality of their software - this just seems to be following the industry trend of dumbed-down software with stupid mystery-meat UIs, acres of whitespace, huge, generic info-free photos and illegible off-white text on a white background. If they produced good software it would probably get criticised for looking old-fashioned.

Getting into (electric and maybe self-driving) cars may be the most sensible way forward.
 
Maybe this article is based on a mistranslation? Concentrating on the Internet as their focus first means there is no product. The Internet is not a product, it's a set of protocols built in hardware and software.

Okay, he's the CEO, so he has no clue about what his employees are doing. What a surprise.

Not just protocols brah... It's also made up tubes. A whole series of them.
 
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Oh yes, Let's rely on CHINA for integrity. Can't believe we do so much business with this country
 
"LeShi [another name for LeEco] is focused on the internet first, and only then on software, and finally on hardware."

From a company that is introducing a self driving electric car this statement makes me feel real safe...

You really want a self driving car on American roads with software written in China and communicating with servers in China? Who knows what remote commands can come into these vehicles via firmware updates.
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The Internet is not a product, it's a set of protocols built in hardware and software.
To the west, your definition is correct. However, in China, the Internet is a state run and managed product just like a newspaper or other form of media.
 
I noted the same; wonder if he's wearing blue jeans in that pic?

Apple is so out-of-date that this LayZhi guy even dresses like Steve Jobs.

His CGI model of a car is really great though, for a college student project. I'm sure he was a self-made man and not some nepotistic blessing from the central government. I'll go out shopping for a LeShi phone today to see what he is offering... oh, his phones are only available in China or in black market stalls.
 
I feel like he's feeling a bit of pressure since Apple is rumoured to be getting into the automotive industry, so I feel like he's knocking Apple now while the iron is hot so that they will end up less threatening and he will be able to sell his car (concepts) better. I feel like that's what he's doing.

Hey: it's his opinion and he can do what he wants. But this has been done before and look what's happened.

I like the concept though. I'll admit that much (I still like Telsa and Audi's designs better, though (even though the latter (and its parent company) did that thing that made me not trust them anymore)).
 



The CEO of Chinese conglomerate LeEco has called Apple's product design "outdated" and "obsolete" in an international TV interview, following the company's unveiling of its first self-driving supercar in Beijing last week (via CNBC).

Jia Yueting is both CEO and chairman of LeEco (formerly LeTV), often referred to as the "Netflix of China", but which has a product range that spans smartphones, TVs, mountain bikes, and now electric vehicles. The 43-year-old entrepreneur began his career as a tech support worker before building his own IT and mobile company, estimated to be worth around $4.8 billion. The Chinese media company is also a strategic partner with US-based electric vehicle company Faraday Future (FF).

1200x-1.jpg

LeEco CEO Jia Yueting (Image: Imaginechina)

The company's smart LeSEE supercar was unveiled with much fanfare at a Beijing event last week. The self-driving car has a steering wheel that folds away and screens that offer up in-car entertainment for passengers. LeEco aims to outdo Tesla's Model S with its supercar, and also aims to bring LeSEE owners into its ecosystem by supplying them with in-car movies, TV shows, and music.

Jia spoke at a meeting of the China Entrepreneur Club, an exclusive summit of business leaders, where he explained why competition in the Chinese market from the likes of Apple did not worry him.

"We think the difference between us and Apple is very large. Apple is a mobile phone company focused on hardware and software," Jia said. "LeShi [another name for LeEco] is focused on the internet first, and only then on software, and finally on hardware."

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The LeEco LeSEE concept electric sedan. (Image: LeEco)


interior_back_leeco_lesee.jpg

Interior of the LeEco LeSEE concept electric sedan. (Image: LeEco)

Apple is expected to report a fall in smartphone sales when it announces second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) earnings tomorrow. During its Q4 results announcement in January, CEO Tim Cook noted "some signs of economic softness", but said Apple remained "very bullish on China" given the low penetration of high-speed mobile data usage and the growing middle class.

Apple Car rumors have gained momentum since early last year, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has hundreds of employees working to develop an electric vehicle under the codename "Project Titan." The bulk of research and development may be taking place in secretive buildings in Sunnyvale, California, where late night "motor noises" have been heard in recent months, while one report claimed that Apple may have a facility in Berlin, too.

Article Link: Electric Car Challenger LeEco Calls Apple Product Design 'Obsolete'
"Apple is a mobile phone company"
"Worst performing Top Five smartphone"
"outdated" and "obsolete"
Depressing reactions for a company that used to make the world's best computers.
My next phone will be a Samsung. My new computer will be Windows. With Apple's growing reputation for greedy pricing and second rate attitude I don't have a choice.
Apple has lost its mojo and the future isn't rose gold any more.
 
I believe the problem is we expect a lot from Apple, and unfortunately since the demise of Jobs a lot just isn't happening. How many times can they continue to recycle the same products in a different color and expect people to buy them? It's a sad state of affairs for a company that spent a long time as an industry leader.
 
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